Are you taking the necessary precautions to keep your data and identity safe? You may think so, but at a recent conference I listened to a security consultant, John Sileo, talk about his personal experiences – yes, there is an “s” at the end of experience – with identity theft and found out how easy it is to have your identity and data stolen.

John began by telling us about his experiences. The first time his identity was stolen, his credit card number was stolen. He went on to tell us how he found out about it and how long it took to re-establish his good credit. The second time his identity was stolen, he found out about it when two FBI agents came to his door to question him regarding the embezzlement of his clients’ funds (his business partner and best friend - so he thought - was the culprit). Two years and thousands of dollars later, he successfully cleared himself of felony charges. Because of these incidents, John became an expert and shares his knowledge with others on how to prevent identity and data theft.

John discussed 5 approaches you may encounter when asked for personal information:1. Trust me (a good nature bias)2. It’s for your safety (security bias)3. We need to hurry (rush bias)4. If you do this (bribe bias) or if you don’t, then (fear bias)5. I just need a little more of your information (sharing bias)

And his suggestions for responses to these requests:

Develop a privacy reflex

listen to your instincts

stop & think before giving out information

Aggressively question the request

who’s asking

can they justify their legitimacy

Control the situation

Connect the request for information with your privacy reflex and the answers to your questions

Other ways to protect yourself:

Optout of junk mail

Use a shredder (confetti shredder is recommended)

Check out your state laws regarding freezing your credit

Monitor your credit reports

Lock up your laptops

Encrypt your data

Do background screening and checks

Verify references

Broadcast your privacy policies

Fortunately, merely by using MRSware, you have already taken a giant step in protecting your business data. Unlike a desktop application, your data resides on our servers and is delivered, via the Internet, on a secure, encrypted, private channel from our servers to your computer once you have entered your Username and Password. So, even if your desktop, laptop or netbook is stolen your MRSware data is safe and secure.